2022 midterm election thread

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Moderate Republican Joe O’Dea Just Got Crushed in Colorado Senate Race
by Abigail Weinberg
November 8, 2022

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) Joe O’Dea, the self-described moderate Republican running for Senate in Colorado, has lost his bid to unseat incumbent Democrat Michael Bennet, multiple outlets are reporting.

O’Dea stands out from other Republican midterm candidates by adhering to the bare minimum of human reasoning and decency: He accepts that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election; he supports codifying same-sex marriage nationally; and he supports legal abortion up to 20 weeks, and later in cases of rape, incest, or threat to the health of the mother, as Colorado Public Radio reports.

But for all his efforts to endear himself to middle-of-the-road Coloradans, O’Dea is still a Republican.

Despite his professed leniency on abortion, O’Dea considers himself pro-life and supports a nationwide ban on abortion later in pregnancy. (Colorado is one of the few states not to impose gestational limits on abortion; one Boulder, Colorado, clinic provides care to women who face the exceedingly rare circumstance of needing an abortion in the third trimester.) And, while O’Dea acknowledges that climate change is real, he doubts the extent to which it was caused by humans and has doubled down on his commitment to Colorado’s oil and gas industry.

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... -bennett/

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First MAGA Congress
by Andrew Solender
November 9, 2022

Introduction:

(Axios) At least 80 people who have questioned the 2020 election results won seats in the House last night — cementing a sizable MAGA caucus.

Why it matters: Their victories could impact the 2024 presidential election, reshape congressional priorities and weaken institutional leaders.
Between the lines: The hard-right flank — there will be more than 90 House members who were endorsed by Trump — could command outsized influence in a narrow GOP majority.

• They'll wield influence first of all in choosing the caucus' leadership — and those leaders will have to make deals either with them or with Democrats to pass anything.

• House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy has said hard-right Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) will get their committee assignments back — and may even get on some plum panels.

Read more here: https://www.axios.com/2022/11/09/maga- ... publicans

caltrek’s comment: While it is probable that Republicans will win control of the House, there are still too many races yet to be called at this writing to declare this result.

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Johnson prevails in Wisconsin Senate race that Democrats eyed as pickup opportunity
Source: CNN

Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson will win reelection, CNN projects, defeating Mandela Barnes in a race that Democrats saw as one of their best flip opportunities in the midterm elections.

The victory is another demonstration of the remarkable political durability of Johnson, 67, who has now won three consecutive hard-fought elections, despite polls that long showed him among the least popular senators up for reelection this year.

In holding off Barnes – whom Democrats had viewed at the outset of this year’s election cycle as a potential rising star – Johnson has also bolstered the GOP’s hopes of winning control of the Senate.

Throughout the summer and fall, Republicans relentlessly focused their attacks on Barnes over crime.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/09/politics ... index.html

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Democrats win control of Michigan Legislature for 1st time in decades
Source: Detroit News

Lansing — Michigan Democrats are poised to win full control of state government by taking majorities in the Legislature for the first time in 40 years, along with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's reelection victory.

While votes were still being tallied Wednesday morning and not all of the key races had been called by the Associated Press, House Democrats said they would hold 56 of the 110 seats in the chamber, a slim, one-vote majority. The Democrats last won control of the House in the 2008 election for the 2009-2010 session.

House Republicans have conceded their 12-year-long hold on the majority, said Gideon D'Assandro, spokesman for the House Republican caucus.

Senate Democrats, who haven't been in power since 1984, announced they had achieved a majority at about 4 a.m. As of 8 a.m., Democrats were leading or had won in 19 of the 38 districts, according to the Associated Press.If their caucus held at 19 seats, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist would serve as a tie-breaking vote, but Democrats believed they would end up with 20 seats.

Read more: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/ ... 632790007/

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[caltrek]

A pretty good analysis on the whole. It does get to me about how the narrative from the primaries to the general breaks without much comment on that break. Put another way, Republicans often face a difficult choice. Attack Trump before the primaries and they are likely to face a Trump backed primary opponent, and even likely to lose in the more extreme circumstances. Just look at what happened to Liz Cheney.

Get and stay too batshit crazy during the general election season, especially in a place that is at all purplish (as opposed to deep red), and the danger is losing your seat or governorship race.

Many Republicans steer a middle course of not antagonizing the MAGA types and therefore not criticizing Trump and company head on.

Trump is such a narcissistic nihilist that he does not care about the future of his party, the future of his country, or the future of this planet. He just wants to win the game of exerting power and gaining attention to himself. What is so remarkable is how many indulge him in that quest for personal power. That may be changing. At least until now, that change has proceeded at a glacially slow pace.

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Funding Fringe Candidates in Republican Primaries Is Still a Terrible Idea
by Ali Breland
November 10, 2022

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) The Democrats had a plan: Fund the right-wing radicals. For the 2022 midterms, according to numbers compiled by the Washington Post, Democrats spent $19 million in support of far-right Republican primary candidates who denied or questioned the results of the 2020 election. Fringe-right candidates, they assumed, would be less palatable to voters in specific districts and states, during a general election.

It seems like it worked.

Most of the money went towards TV ad buys backing GOP candidates in 13 races across eight states. Six of these candidates won their primaries. And of those six candidates, almost all of them lost their midterm bids in the general election in 2022—with the exception of Kari Lake, whose Arizona governor race is still too close to call.

So, yeah, everything went well, right?

Well, no. Elections aren’t just elections, they’re a part of a permission structure. To win a primary election is in some ways to be deemed acceptable. These people aren’t just losers who are barred from ever running again. They have gained star power.

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... ncubator/

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Abortion Rights Are a Winning Strategy
by Madison Pauly
November 9, 2022

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) In state after state on Election Day, voters sent a resounding message: “Abortion rights matter to us.”

They didn’t only matter in California and Vermont, where voters chose to guarantee abortion rights in their state constitutions.
They mattered in deep-red Kentucky, where voters shot down a “no right to abortion” amendment that would have blocked the path to overturning the state’s zero-week abortion ban.

They mattered in battleground Michigan, where voters approved an amendment to enshrine “reproductive freedom”: not just the right to choose abortion, but to make one’s own decisions around prenatal care, contraception, sterilization, and miscarriage management. The amendment will ensure that courts there won’t allow a 1931 abortion ban to take effect in a state that has become a haven for out-of-state patients after Roe.

And abortion rights mattered in Montana, where voters rejected a referendum pushed by abortion opponents that would have increased penalties on doctors who did not perform aggressive medical interventions on infants. In Alaska, as of Wednesday morning, voters seemed unlikely to approve a ballot question opening a constitutional convention—a move that protects the constitution from anti-abortion changes.

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022